Join the Resistance

An awakening has been happening across our society. People increasingly recognize how long-standing, systemic issues have prevented many from flourishing. But often Christians are not sure how best to engage. Does it help to march and hold signs? What can we do to contribute and not further complicate things?

Faith-rooted justice advocate and activist Michelle Ferrigno Warren equips Christians to join Christ's restorative work in the world. In nearly three decades of experience, she left much of her privilege to work alongside the poor and marginalized in the restoration of individuals and communities, collaborating with community leaders, marching in streets, and meeting with and speaking truth to power. She says, "How you show up is just as important as showing up." From the grassroots to the grass tops, Warren invites us to understand our place in this moment and learn from those who have gone before: the poets and prophets who call us to resist oppression and injustice.

Biblical, historical, and contemporary examples give us ways to walk in God's righteousness, truth, and peace. We can better understand our shared solidarity, persevere in the midst of struggle, bring people along, and remain rooted in joy as we continue the good work of kingdom justice.



Michelle Ferrigno Warren is the president and CEO of Virago Strategies, a consulting group that provides strategic direction and project management for civic engagement campaigns alongside communities impacted by racial and economic injustice. She helped found Open Door Ministries, a community development 501(c)(3) corporation in downtown Denver, to address poverty, addiction, and homelessness through social programs. With policy expertise in economic justice and human service issues, she has served as advocacy and strategic engagement director for the Christian Community Development Association and done coalition work with the National Immigration Forum. Warren is a senior fellow with the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute and adjunct faculty at Denver Seminary. She and her husband live in Denver's Westside neighborhood and have three adult children. She is the author of The Power of Proximity.

Foreword by Latasha Morrison


Introduction: How to Step into the Good Work
Part One: Serve the Movement


1. Walking In


2. Brave Steps


3. Falling Forward


Steps Forward to Serve the Movement
Part Two: Stay at the Table


4. The Long Arc


5. Resilience


6. Leverage What You Have


Steps Forward to Stay at the Table
Part Three: Help Your People


7. Rooted in Love


8. Rooted in Peace


9. Rooted in Joy


Steps Forward to Help Your People


Afterword by Dominique DuBois Gilliard


Acknowledgments


Notes

"Michelle Warren has learned from personal experience how drawing near to those who hunger for justice can bring us closer to God and God's dream for our lives. Join the Resistance is a gift to those who've sensed that the Spirit is stirring in the streets, inviting us to follow Jesus among neighbors crying aloud for their lives. Receive the gift, and join the resistance in Jesus' name."



"Recent years have revealed a new generation of women and men who are ready to defy injustice. But how do we move from passion about justice to participation in the day-to-day work for justice? Drawing from the experience of her years of collaborative advocacy and the wisdom of the biblical prophets, Michelle Warren offers us an accessible vision for how each of us—no matter our social location—can join the beautiful resistance."



"Michelle Warren gets the message of the gospel. She has lived among the oppressed and understands their struggles. In Join the Resistance she gives us insight into what is needed to overcome the forces that stop the church from standing for our oppressed sisters and brothers."



"Join the Resistance is more than one woman's reflection on her own journey toward racial advocacy. It is testimony to the Spirit's power to transform and use a surrendered life, and a road map for those seeking a way out of supremacist practice into co-conspiracy with God toward the shalom that is only found in justice."



"Those who have been stepping into the troubled waters to resist racial injustice and division with the light of Christ can help us all know where to go. Michelle is one of those light-shining kinds of people. She has been stepping into good work that actively repairs and restores what is broken at every level, from individual restoration and social justice transformation to the work of dismantling systemic injustice. She helps shine this light on a new, necessary way forward in this book. She does not leave people with an imperative to go and do without showing us a way."



"This book clarifies what faithful allyship entails. True allyship requires consistency, humility, perseverance, and a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit. Faithful allyship is never about showing up to impart preconceived solutions. It necessitates listening, learning, and serving in all the unglamorous ways that garner no headlines. . . . This book gives allies marching orders and explains what it looks like to heed Scripture's call to be ambassadors of reconciliation and repairers of the breach."



"Join the Resistance is a call for the people of God to live their beliefs in a way that makes the heart of God tangible in our world. Michelle Warren speaks out of her experience and does so humbly. Her prophetic words do not demand we do more, but they help us see that by joining the resistance we will find the kind of life Jesus came to give, which is 'life to full.'"



"In Join the Resistance, Michelle Warren inspires readers to act at a time when it's most needed. Social justice movements sometimes stall when people don't know what they can do to help. Warren uses her own intriguing personal journey and a collection of historical anecdotes to show how we all have the capability to do extraordinary things. This book is the guide change agents in the making need to go from can't to can."



"Join the Resistance describes resistance to the powers and principalities as the work of one community—a community made up of biblical prophets, activists throughout history, and faithful advocates today. It will convict you of your apathy and inspire you with biblical teaching. But most importantly, it will equip you with resources for joining that community's work in the world today. This book is not merely about Michelle's journey, it is about how to live a life upended by the coming kingdom of God and shaped by the faithful work of the family of God."



"Michelle Warren knows of what she writes. This book is rich in Bible-based theology, but even richer in real-life, concrete practice based in Michelle's lived experience. Her humility and self-awareness show in her admission she doesn't know it all and still has much to learn about injustice. Still, she doesn't use ignorance to excuse inaction. Instead, Michelle takes what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the risky venture of responsible action, concerned more for the well-being of those who suffer in the margins than for her doing that action perfectly. You won't know everything after reading Join the Resistance, but you will know enough to step out in faith and help others pursue God's justice while deepening your understanding of it. This book is a gift to all who need justice and those who desire to help them find it." weniger anzeigen expand_less